Winter 2006
Do you hear what I hear?
A researcher at WSU Vancouver explores how the brain turns sounds into meaningful messages. » More ...
Neuroscience
Spring 2003
How do we perceive sound?
Christine Portfors, a neurologist, tends a lair of 23 tropical moustache bats at WSU Vancouver in order to tease apart the question of how they distinguish between sounds-for example, between those they use for echolocation and those they use to communicate.
Bat communication sounds, like speech sounds, are very complex in terms of frequency and timing, says Portfors. Beyond that, “We don’t know anything about how the brain actually processes those types of sounds.”
Earlier work by Portfors revealed that bats have neurons that are very sensitive to the timing of the echolocation sound, between when they emit it and when the echo comes back. … » More …
Summer 2005
Jell-O brains and boa constrictors draw kids to science
Fifth-graders from seven area school districts bustled into the CUB ballroom recently for the third annual Kids Judge! Neuroscience Fair. After the participants met with their brain team-neurons, dendrites, boutons, memory, synapses-they made a visit to the Jell-O brain station where they chose from a variety of anatomically correct flavored gelatin brains.
And then to work. Clipboards in hand, the children evaluated 14 educational models developed by Washington State University NEURO 430 students, faculty, and graduate students.
The projects focused on hands-on activities through which students could learn about the function and physiology of the brain. David M. Rector, assistant professor in the Department of … » More …
Spring 2002
Memories Are Made of This
Neuroscientists Jay Wright and Joe Harding can approximate Alzheimer's symptoms in a rat by injecting a certain protein into its hippocampus. What's more, they can reverse those symptoms. » More ...